Photo credit: Emilio Madrid-Kuser
Come November, the legendary Cicely Tyson will finally be receiving an Oscar.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced Tyson as one of its 2018 Honorary Academy Award recipients on Wednesday. During her 60-plus year career, Tyson has received a Kennedy Center Honor, a Presidential Medal of Freedom, a Tony, and multiple Emmy awards, where she became the first Black woman to win Best Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie in 1974. Two years prior, in 1972, she earned an Oscar nomination for Best Actress for her role in “Sounder.”
According to Vanity Fair, the 93-year-old actress “will again make history at the Governors Awards, as she is the first Black woman to receive an Oscar in the honorary award category.”
“Choosing the honorees for its awards each year is the happiest of all the Board of Governors’ work,” Academy President John Bailey said in a statement. “And this year, its selection of five iconic artists was made with universal acclaim by the Academy’s 54 spirited governors.”
This year’s other recipients include publicist Marvin Levy, composer Lalo Schifrin, and producing husband-wife team Frank Marshall and Kathleen Kennedy, who will be awarded the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award. The 10th annual Governors Awards is set to take place in Los Angeles on November 18.
Well-deserved! Congratulations, Ms. Tyson!